US Regional Contest Mid-West
The Mid-West Regional Yo-Yo Contest is held annually at the Mall of America in Minnesota. It is one of the member contests of the National Yo-Yo League. It encompasses the following states; Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. The top finisher from the Midwest Regional contest who resides in one of the above states, gets an automatic seed into the National Yo-Yo contest in Chico California. Dazzling Dave Schulte ran the first contest in 1998, and is still the organizer today. The Midwest Regional Yo-Yo Championships was one of the first "Regional" contests held. A few other annual contests were around, but did not have the "Regional" title or the breadth of competitors. There were almost 50 competitors, from 6 different states that first year. Since then it has grown both in competitors, and level of play. It is now held every June at the Mall of America. The history of the event is quite fun, in 1998 it was a fixed axle contest only, as the AYYA membership voted back then to make transaxles be in their own division if someone wanted to use a bearing or plastic sleeve yo-yo. No one even requested to use a transaxle in the contest. Obviously since that date major changes in technology and trick design have occurred to make transaxles more popular and accepted at all contests. Fixed axles are still around, but greatly outnumbered in a contest. Current Champions (2013) *1A - Eric Koloski *2A - John Narum *3A - Patrick Borgerding *4A - Ian Johnson *5A - Shane Lubecker Past Champions 2012 *1A - Alex Berenguel *2A - Yu Tsumura *3A - Eric Tranton *4A - Ben Conde *5A - AJ Kirk 2011 *1A - John Narum *2A - Conner Scholten *3A - John Narum *4A - Conner Scholten *5A - Conner Scholten 2010 *1A - Chris Fraser *2A - Grant Johnson *3A - N/A *4A - John Narum *5A - Conner Scholten 2009 *1A - John Narum *2A - N/A *3A - N/A *4A - John Narum *5A - Ian Johnson 2008 *1A - Tyler Severance *2A - John Narum *3A - N/A *4A - John Narum *5A - Tyler Severance 2007 *1A - Sebastian Brock *2A - N/A *3A - N/A *4A - John Narum *5A - Tyler Severance 2006 *1A - Alex Berenguel *Y - AJ Kirk 2005 *1A - John Narum *Y - John Narum 2004 *1A - Alex Berenguel *Y - Rob Kitts 2003 *1A - Jake Maloney *2A - Paul Han 2002 *1A - Conway Yung *2A - Rob Kitts 2001 *1A - Brent Dillinger *2A - Matt Harlow 2000 *Novice - Colton Mollerud *Advanced - Charlie Abbott *Expert - Matt Compton *Championship - Matt Harlow 1999 *Novice - Daniel Balogh *Advanced (16-) - Ben Byers *Advanced (16+) - Dave Wells *Expert - Patrick Heinonen *Championship - Matt Harlow 1998 *Novice - Nick Vu *Advanced (14-) - Ryan Higgins *Advanced (15+) - Brad Arndt *Masters - Ryan McQuilian *Pro-Am - Dave Schulte External Link * Midwest Regionals Yo-yo Contest Category:Contests Category:Regional Contests